Thursday, January 31, 2013

Just
as expressing gratitude confers benefits, so too does giving to others. New
research shows that people all around the world – from Canada to Uganda, from
South Africa to India – derive more happiness from spending money on others
than they do on themselves.

"For
the first time, we show that giving away money or spending it on others confers
the ironic psychological benefit of increasing the giver’s sense of wealth,”
says Michael Norton of Harvard Business School and co-author with Elizabeth
Dunn of the University of British Columbia of the upcoming book Happy Money: The Science of Smarter Spending.
In a suite of new, not-yet published, studies, Norton and colleagues showed
that charitable giving makes people feel wealthier.

This
research follows on other recent work published in Psychological Science by
Norton and colleagues that shows that giving time to others – from helping with
homework to shoveling a neighbors’ driveway – actually makes people feel that
they have more time. "In fact, giving time away alleviates people’s sense
of time famine even more than receiving unexpected windfalls of free time.”

That
people feel wealthier from spending money on others may explain why poor
individuals tend to give away a higher fraction of their income than members of
the middle class do. In one study, researchers reported that Americans earning
less than $20,000 a year give a higher percentage of their income to charity
than others earning up to $300,000 a year.

"Our
results suggest when the poor give money away, that very act might mitigate
their feelings of poverty,” Norton says. "More broadly than this specific
benefit, our investigation contributes to the growing body of research
documenting the benefits of prosocial behavior, which include greater happiness,
reduced mortality, and better immune function.”

Wednesday, January 30, 2013

Less
than half as much as you think, according to this recently published Cornell
University snacking study. Using chocolate chips, apple pie, and potato chips,
researchers Ellen van Kleef, Mitsuru Shimizu, and Brian Wansink designed a
study to determine if people who were given smaller portions of snack foods
would feel hungrier or satisfied fifteen minutes after eating.

Participants were given either a small
portion (x) or a 5-10x portion

Two
groups with different portion sizes were tested. The larger portion size group
was given 100g of chocolate, 200g of apple pie, and 80g of potato chips, all
slightly larger than the recommended portion sizes. This equaled 1370 calories
in snack foods. The other group was given 10g, 40g, and 10g of these same foods
respectively, for a total of 195 calories. The two groups were given as much
time to eat as needed, and were asked to fill out surveys to rate the liking,
familiarity, and boredom with the food. They were also asked to rate their
hunger and craving before the food was presented and fifteen minutes after the
taste tests ended.

'Just a Bite' Will Satisfy

The
results remarkably showed that smaller portion sizes are capable of providing
similar feelings of satisfaction as larger ones. Those given larger portions consumed 77% more
food, amounting to 103 calories more, but they did not feel any appetite
enhancing or stronger feelings of satiety than the group with the smaller
portions.

Overall
these findings reflect the importance of portion size. While larger portions
result in increased food intake, smaller portions may make you feel equally
satisfied. The smaller portions can lead to a decline in hunger and desire that
would help people limit their food intake.

So,
next time you are craving a snack food, remember that you can feel similarly
satisfied with one handful as you would with two!

Alcohol
may help you get to sleep faster and sleep better at first, but it disrupts
your sleep later in the night, according to British researchers who reviewed
all known scientific studies on alcohol's impact on sleep.

The
authors said they hope their findings will help people understand that drinking
alcohol only gives the impression of improving sleep, and that it should not be
used as a sleep aid.

The
review found that alcohol consumption shortens the time it takes to get to
sleep and increases initial deep sleep, but reduces rapid eye movement (REM)
sleep. Lack of REM sleep can harm concentration, motor skills and memory.

"One
hypothesis is that alcohol acts like medications that are used for depression
and anxiety," review corresponding author Irshaad Ebrahim, medical
director at the London Sleep Centre, said in a journal news release.

"Studies
on patients with depression have identified that untreated patients had
excessive REM sleep, particularly in the early part of the night, and that
antidepressant medication suppressed REM sleep. Alcohol acts like
antidepressants, reducing REM sleep particularly in the first part of the
night. This impact of alcohol on REM sleep may explain the mood elevation and
anxiety reduction associated with alcohol use," Ebrahim said.

Ebrahim's
colleague, Chris Idzikowski, director of the Edinburgh Sleep Center in
Scotland, pointed out that the review helps clarify the research findings.
"Certainly a mythology seems to have developed around the impact of
alcohol on sleep," Idzikowski said in the news release.

"In
sum, alcohol on the whole is not useful for improving a whole night's sleep.
Sleep may be deeper to start with, but then becomes disrupted. Additionally,
that deeper sleep will probably promote snoring and poorer breathing. So, one
shouldn't expect better sleep with alcohol," Idzikowski said.

A new study reveals sex to be pleasurable
with or without use of a condom or lubricant.

American
men and women rated sex as highly arousing and pleasurable regardless of
whether condoms and/or lubricants were used, according to a study by Indiana
University School of Public Health-Bloomington researchers.

The
researchers reviewed a nationally representative study of men and women ages 18
to 59 to assess characteristics of condom and lubricant use during
participants' most recent sexual event, and the relationship of their condom
and lubricant use to their ratings of sexual quality.

"There's
this commonly held belief that condom use makes sex feel less natural or
pleasurable," said study lead author Debby Herbenick, associate research
scientist and co-director for the Center for Sexual Health Promotion. "But
when people use them, sex happens to be great."

No
significant differences were found in regard to men's ratings of the ease of
their erections based on condom and lubricant use.

Misperceptions Can Raise Risk for STDs,
HIV and Unintended Pregnancy

"The
U.S. continues to grapple with high rates of sexually transmitted infections,
HIV and unintended pregnancies," Herbenick said. "We need to
understand how people make choices about the products they use, or avoid using,
and how these products contribute to the safety and pleasurable aspects of
their sexual experiences. This is particularly important as the products
themselves evolve and become more mainstream in American society. We also need
to understand what men and women know, or don't know, about the products they
use so that we can better target public health education messages to
individuals and groups."

Lubricants also related to Pleasure and
Excitement

Lubricants
are underestimated for their ability to improve sex, said Herbenick. And women
of any age may misinterpret the need to use a lubricant as an indication of
non-arousal. "I knew a 26-year-old woman who said she dreaded pulling out
lubricant," said Herbenick. "She said there needs to be a website
that says, 'Younger women need lubricant, too.'"

Women
who experience vaginal dryness after menopause can also feel frustrated, seeing
the need for a lubricant as a sad sign of aging.

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